Well, I've had this D4-10 for several years now & finally pulled it into my shop to start tearing her completely down. Likely going to hire it all sandblasted, as it's so much to do and would take me forever with my small blaster. Hoping to do my best restore to this one. This will actually be my first "true" restoration, as it will be all original with none of my usual "changes" to suit myself. Will likely take a year or more to finish, but who knows. This is a pic of it this past summer spike harrowing in wheat cover crop into my "new" garden area.

Below is "teardown mode". Got the differential draining...contaminated oil, plus going to take apart & do thorough check/cleaning plus new seals. Isn't that the cutest little clutch! All the sheet metal & some other parts all on my mobile shelf unit till blasting time. Just a few bolts in chassis to remove, plus disassemble all the dash components. The engine gets rebuilt...maybe. If it's cylinder is in good shape & will still accept std piston. If worn bad, I'll likely use engine off the parts tractor. It hardly smokes at all, none when warm. Hoping to use the original engine though.

To tell the truth, my ambition is shrinking with every year. It's just that if I don't just tear into something, I'll never start and just keep putting it off. I really hated in a way to start on this one, as it ran & operated, but I figure next year I'll even be less likely, so just got into it now before I get too lazy. Plus, I promised the fellow that I bought it from that I would restore it. He grew up just down the road, and this tractor was bought new by his deceased father-in-law, an he said his wife would really love to see it get fixed back up. "Red" as we call him said he would have liked to have fixed her up, but admitted he barely handled spark plug changes. I'm not likely to do another for a LONG time, but who knows....if I can lose some weight & feel better, I might keep on keeping on.

It's a Wisconsin engine... I'd like to know if we can swap that engine to a Briggs. My Wisconsin is suspect.

I know a guy on my Bush Hog group that has a D4-12 with Briggs. Came with Tecumseh only. The older Briggs have the back of block tapped to accept the bell housing, but you'd have to machine the end of the crankshaft to accept the pilot bushing for the clutch shaft. So it CAN be done!

Daniel in Ky -- So much to do, so little time!

Got some done today, but found a problem. The right side axle is twisted bad just where it enters carrier. Good I have a parts tractor...surely one will be good on it! Got all clean inside, now to pull axle out of spare. Gonna see about new seals even though these didn't leak. Seems they hold forever till you mess with them.

Daniel in Ky -- So much to do, so little time!

Got the transaxle finished a while back, but due to ice storm & everything, not much else done till this morning. After milking I went to shoot some paint on wheel weights I bought for the Bush Hog JBI (plow time soon for garden). Decided while shooting red to paint the D4-10 transaxle as well.

Daniel in Ky -- So much to do, so little time!

Not had any time forever to work on this Bush Hog, but this morning started my day off, so got up early & sandblasted myself silly on the engine. I took the engine down last week. I have a NOS piston & rings set and bore is like new. Replaced one guide. Crank & rod are great. Anyway, today I got from a dirty block/sheet metal to this: